


A Meandering Process

by wistfulpisces



Series: 221 Word Drabbles [15]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, POV John Watson, Pining, Pining John, Post-Reichenbach, Protective John
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 23:15:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14904033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wistfulpisces/pseuds/wistfulpisces
Summary: John knew things with Sherlock would be different now, something having altered irrevocably frombefore. He hadn't stopped to really think that the man himself would be different, too.





	A Meandering Process

There’s something about you now that makes you seem both heart-stoppingly close and extremely remote.

You’re always just a breath away, standing near enough to sense, as though we can gauge one another’s proximity through a magnetic field of our own making. But sometimes you’re further than ever — further than the nearest crime scene, than Afghanistan, further than whichever classified locations stole you away during all of that lost time.

I imagine that finding our way back to something like what we had will be a meandering process. I am a patient man; I want whatever’s best for you. I’m not naive enough to expect a map for this kind of thing.

That doesn’t stop me from loathing how you flinch when taxis suddenly speed past, disturbing the stillness of 221B. Loathing the veiled tightness around your eyes when a witness mistakenly assumes it’s permissible to place a hand on your arm. No objective knowledge softens those heavy blows.

Now you seek out the noisy cafes of London’s heart in order to think clearly: anonymity feels like safety. A timid version of you is akin to a self-conscious peacock.

And it feels like longing, seeing the frustration I know you feel. There’s something forever changed from _before_ , some part of you rendered irretrievable.

I wish I could take your fear away.


End file.
